


cast off seven

by mildlydiscouraging



Series: the weight we carry [10]
Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bechdel Test Pass, Cold Weather, Gen, New Year's Eve, Sweaters, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 03:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7996171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlydiscouraging/pseuds/mildlydiscouraging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A week in the life of Ginny Danbury, as told by her sweaters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cast off seven

_December 27 — Long cardigan with pockets, cranberry colored_

Ginny stands in the foyer of her parents' house. She kind of hates that she instinctively calls it a foyer, almost as much as her aunt who starts ranting about Social Security when she gets into the sherry.

She had been hoping last year was an outlier, that the awkwardness was due to "visiting home" rather than just living there, but no, it was just as weird the second time. Living in New York allowed Ginny to forget the little things about her family that were so annoying, like how her father always discusses his medical journals in detail at the breakfast table and her mother changed the sheets of every slept-in bed every afternoon. They were things that on their own weren't that bad, but one after the other when she hadn't been exposed to the annoyances on a regular basis, it was all too much.

Her train home was set to arrive in twenty minutes, only just longer than the drive there, which was why Ginny was standing in the foyer in the first place, suitcase in hand with her coat draped over her arm. Her mother was supposed to give her a ride there about, oh, ten minutes ago, but she was still somewhere in the depths of the house.

"Mom!" Ginny calls up the main staircase. The rest of the house is quiet, her father off to work and Chet already back in Boston as of yesterday afternoon. Ginny wasn't entirely sure whether he was actually still in college, but she still envied him for being able to get out so quickly--he had somehow managed to get away with arriving Christmas Eve and disappearing with the crumpled wrapping paper as soon as all the gifts were open. She had always admired (and coveted) his ability to get out of anything he wanted.

Five minutes later they're both bundled into the car and making small talk about what classes Ginny is taking next semester and what cases Mr. Danbury is taking on. By day two they had run out of new things to talk about, so they soon enough end up on the well-worn topics of weather and neighbor drama.

"Have you decided what major you're going to declare?" Mrs. Danbury asks. "You know you really should make a decision, you're running out of time."

Ginny doesn't answer, mostly because she doesn't know what to say, but thankfully is saved from having to bullshit something by the fact that they pull into the parking lot of the train station only a few seconds later.

She steps out of the car and pulls on her coat over her sweater and long-sleeved shirt. Although it isn't snowing yet, there are heavy clouds hanging over them, soft grey with darker, more harsh outlines. She can already tell it'll be an angry snow. She just hopes she'll be on the train by then, safe from the cold and hopefully uninterrupted by it.

Ginny grabs her suitcase from the trunk, thanks her mother, and starts looking for the right platform. Four more hours.

•••

_December 27 — Thick knit blue sweater, wool_

When Ginny gets home, it's absolutely freezing. Chris is still at her parents for another day, so the heat in the apartment hasn't been turned on for days.

Her suitcase wheels glide over the hardwood as she heads to the thermostat first, her bedroom second. She pulls out the thickest, warmest sweater she owns and crawls into her bed. Chris doesn't come home for another two days and most of their friends are still visiting family or otherwise out of town until New Year's Eve, so Ginny is going to take advantage of the alone time. After being stuck in a house with more relatives than beds, the alone time is good, and the air is already warming up.

•••

_December 28 — Black cardigan with the first button buttoned_

In the stacks of Barnes & Noble, Ginny smooths down her hair for the eightieth time since her shift started. Wearing a hat had been a mistake, but it was snowing when she left for work, and had continued all afternoon. She contemplates putting the hat back on, but it doesn't really match her whole black-sweater-and-dark-purple-shirt-with-jeans ensemble, which is haphazard at best but has at least some semblance of coherence and she doesn't want to ruin that.

As she straightens up the line of graphic novels in front of her, Ginny's phone buzzes. She pulls it out to read a text from Chris bemoaning how hard packing is when her clothes have somehow migrated all over her parents' house. She smiles as she replies with one hand, still evening out the books on the shelf.

Once she sends the message, Ginny puts her phone back in her pocket and readjusts her glasses. Today was not a good day for contacts and she'd been too tired to deal with them, trying to get back into the swing of things after vacation, so glasses it was.

Ginny yawns and her glasses start sliding down her nose again. Looking through her notifications, she sees an email from her adviser reminding her of deadlines and details and numbers of all sorts that she forgets as soon as she looks away. Before any of it can start to sink in, Ginny locks the screen and rubs her eyes. She decides to make a stop at the little coffee shop downstairs. She really needs the caffeine.

•••

_December 29 —  Ugly cute fair isle sweater belonging to Chris_

Chris, being the eldest of the group, had been gracious enough to use her newly minted legality to buy a few bottles of champagne for the party. Ginny meets her on the way to Neil and Todd's to both hand off the bottles and have coffee.

"For someone who owns so many blankets and sweaters, you sure are cold all the time," Chris jokes when she walks up to their usual table. Ginny is still wearing her coat, even though her hands are wrapped around a mug of hot coffee and she's already been inside for ten minutes.

"That's _why_ I have all that stuff," Ginny says as Chris throws one of her bags on the table and herself in the opposite armchair. Chris takes a sip of her coffee, which Ginny had ordered for her but gotten to-go so the lid would keep the heat in.

"Here." Chris opens one of her bags and hands Ginny a sweater from inside. "I just got it back from Charlie, but I'd rather not have a best friend who froze to death from neglect."

Ginny takes off her coat just long enough to pull the sweater over her head. The geometric pattern is straddling the fine line between ugly cute and just ugly, but Ginny doesn't mind too much how it looks because it's unbelievably warm.

"I know," Chris says as Ginny pulls her hands up inside her sleeves. "Charlie almost didn't give it back, it was only the thought of the cat getting to it that finally got them to hand it over."

"You'll have to pry this from my warm, dead hands," Ginny says.

After twenty minutes on the train, Ginny is plenty cozy when she walks up to Neil and Todd's fifth floor apartment. She has to knock on the wood twice as loud as usual to be heard over the sound of the vacuum inside, and eventually when the loud noises stop, Todd opens the door, his bangs in disarray and looking generally flustered.

"Whose sweater even _is_ that?" He asks as he steps back to let her into the apartment. "Because I'm pretty sure I've seen at least three people wearing it in the past month."

"I think technically it's Chris's."

"I hope she doesn't miss it."

Ginny slides her bag off her shoulder and onto the table. "She's the one who gave me it, so probably not. How's it going here? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Todd says. He pushes things to the side to make room at the table.

"But...?" Ginny prompts as she shrugs her coat off to lay across the back of her chair.

"I'm just a little anxious about the party, I guess," Todd explains. "Like, I know it's just friends and nothing fancy and all that, but it just feels like there's so much to do and not enough time to do it, and my _parents_ were just here and it was _weird_ , and I don't know if it went well or not but I don't really have time to think about it, and this is our party, a party at our apartment, me and Neil, our place, and even though we're all friends I feel like it should be more significant, but I would be able to handle it even less if it was so I'm sort of just in this limbo."

In all the years she's known him, Ginny doesn't think she's ever heard Todd say this many words at once. Instead of addressing the sheer volume of his concerns, she just rolls up the cuffs of her sweater and asks, "Alright, where are we moving the sofa?"

•••

 _December 31 — Thin, long-sleeved cardigan,_ _emerald green_

An hour to midnight finds Ginny standing in the kitchen and staring out the window at the city lights. While it had been nice to finally see all her friends again, as the party had worn on, slowly people had begun to drift into pairs. Neil and Todd are in their own little bubble on one of the couches, Charlie showing Stephen pictures of all the "cool" things their cat had done while Stephen was away (which is mainly just lie on the floor wherever the most sunlight was), Knox and Chris as sort of in the on again stage, and even Gerard has someone to talk to as he picks records from the pile people had brought with a girl from Neil's art class. Normally seeing her friends all together would be a heartwarming thing and wouldn't bother her, but with it being New Year's Eve and all, she can't help notice being the odd one out.

"Someone's not in the holiday spirit," Neil's voice says from behind her. She turns around to see him standing in front of the fridge and searching its contents. He pulls out a can of ginger ale and opens it, pouring it into one of the plastic champagne flutes. He fills another one with the bottle of champagne Charlie had convinced them to open early and backs into the fridge door to close it.

"Look at you," he continues, turning to her with a smile. "You're not festive at all."

"I'm plenty festive!" Ginny says indignantly as she gestures at her cardigan. "Look, I'm wearing a color!"

Neil raises his eyebrows at her. "Right... You good?" Behind him, Chris notices the interaction and waves.

Ginny waves back and takes a second to really think about the question before answering. "Yeah," she says. "I'm good."

"Good." Neil nods pensively. "Because anything else is not allowed at any party of mine." He winks at her before backing out of the kitchen with his drinks.

"Happy New Year's, Neil," Ginny calls after him with a smile.

"Happy New Year's, Gin."

Almost an hour later, Ginny has lost her sweater, the room heating up over time thanks to the number of bodies in it. They could hear the sounds from Time's Square in the distance and could just barely see the bright white of the ball from the living room window, which was just as good as being there and without the crowd.

When the sound of the countdown makes it's way in the open door to the balcony, where Neil and Todd are standing, Ginny doesn't notice at first. She and Chris were talking about the homework they were sure to get next week and preemptively bemoaning how school would soon consume their lives again.

"I'm gonna need more notebooks," Chris says, but she's interrupted by the disorganizedly loud yell of the countdown starting and echoing out of the streets and every building with a window open. People who were just about to fall asleep on the couch or against a wall suddenly spring up, wide awake again, and Ginny opens her eyes fully again, not having realized they were drifting shut. It had been a long week.

Ginny starts counting down with the rest of the apartment with around five seconds left to go. When they reach zero and erupt into cheers, Chris gives her a peck on the cheek and hugs her.

"Happy New Year's, Ginny," she says into her ear, a little louder than necessary to compensate for the noise of the room. "I hope it's a good one."

"It will be," Ginny promises.

•••

 _ _January 1 —_ Oversize_ _white sweatshirt_

When Ginny wakes up the next morning, the first thing she sees is the ceiling. It takes her a moment to notice it's the ceiling of Neil and Todd's living room and not her bedroom, but she closes her eyes for a little while longer, still tired. She vaguely remembers falling asleep finally at three, which her phone tells her was only four hours ago, and isn't quite hungover, but the weird jetless jet lag she's felt all week has finally caught up to her. Someone must have thrown the blanket from the back of the couch over her as only her face feels the cold coming in around the windowpanes.

No one else is awake when she finally lifts her head. Charlie and Knox are lying in opposite directions on the other sofa, their legs overlapping and very close to kicking each other in the face. There is a fleet of plastic champagne flutes on the coffee table, some coated on the inside with the gold and black confetti Charlie had happily thrown across the room at midnight.

Ginny quietly grabs her things and slips out the door. She doesn't feel nearly as tired as she should be for only getting four hours of sleep, but it's easier to keep going once she starts moving. She very nearly drifts off on the train home, but manages to stay awake until her stop, and it's only a couple hundred feet and a few flights of stairs until she can fall into her apartment.

Chris is sleeping on the couch when she gets in and Ginny makes sure not to wake her as she walks past. In her room, she reluctantly changes out of her warm but stale clothes from last night.

Now in her flannel pajama pants and sweatshirt two sizes too big, Ginny crawls into bed. Unable to fall asleep immediately after having to use her brain for more than five minutes, she scrolls through her photo gallery. Every picture she took the night before has at least one smiling face, friends gathered around, or a warm, happy shadow. There's a picture of confetti in Stephen's hair, everyone's shoes in a haphazard pile by the door, Charlie and Neil with their arms around each other's shoulders, Chris mid-laugh as Knox indignantly tells a story Ginny thinks was about him running into something, Neil looking at Todd like he hung the moon, Gerard trying to make a tower out of plastic cups, photo after photo of good memories too numerous to remember the entirety of.

Ginny turns off her phone and curls up like a huge cotton blend cat to fall back asleep for, hopefully, another four hours. Just before fully drifting off, she turns toward the sun coming in the window. If you're supposed to start the year the way you want to finish it, Ginny figures her December won't too bad.

•••

 __January 2 —_ _ _Black turtleneck with a slightly frayed right cuff_

"Well, I'm glad to hear you made it home alive," Mrs. Danbury says from Ginny's headphones. "It would've been nice to have heard from you earlier, but..."

"I was kind of busy, Mom," Ginny says as she swipes through the turnstile and down into the subway station. She's supposed to meet Todd and Stephen to study in fifteen minutes and she's twenty minutes away on a good day. Unfortunately, it was snowing extra hard that morning, and the trains were twice as crowded as usual.

She runs the last few feet to slide into the car just before the doors close. "I had work and then all my friends came home so I wanted to see them," she continues.

"Of course, I understand. I just wish you'd call more. I worry about you. I know it might not seem like it, but your father does too."

Ginny pulls her sleeves out from inside her coat to cover her hands. She had forgotten her gloves at home and was really regretting turning down Chris when she had offered her pair. "Sorry."

"Promise you'll make more of an effort?"

The train stops and Ginny is the first one out the door. "It would be nice to hear how things are more than once a month," her mother continues in her ear as she starts up the steps.

"Sure," she says at the same time as she waves to Todd and Stephen on the opposite corner waiting for her. "I'll make it one of my resolutions."

She pulls out her headphones without ending the call and hurries across the street before the light changes.

**Author's Note:**

> i realized in writing the eighty other fics in this universe that i pretty much always imagine ginny wearing sweaters? much like myself. anyway, this popped into my head as a just sort of "day in the life" kind of thing, and then it evolved from there until we got to this mess lol
> 
> thank you all for reading!!!! as usual, the comments are always open!
> 
> tumblr @[moonfullofstars](http://moonfullofstars.tumblr.com)


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